Create. Dream. Love.

How To Be Here

Just finished reading Rob Bell‘s book, How To Be Here. In 3 days. One reason for the quick read is that it was an easy read! Thank you, Rob Bell. But more than that it was ridiculouslyengaging. No matter who you are, how your life is going, if you really enjoy your occupation or not, if you feel super satisfied with your life or otherwise, you have GOT to read this book. It’s that good. I’ll read it again and again.

A couple main takeaways for me:

Take a Sabbath. But like ACTUALLY take one. Get off your phone. Don’t have a to-do list. Make it a day that’s really a Sabbath and not just one that you’re not working at your “job”. Don’t check emails. Check OUT. I’ve had my phone on DND all day and it has been wonderful to actually be checked out. No social media. Minimal texting (I texted my husband because he’s my husband and he was grocery shopping). No email checking work OR personal. Guys. Seriously. So great. We go a million miles a minute all the time and so often that gives us little time to process things that have happened throughout the week. Slow down and rest. #selflove

Try new things. That thing you’ve wanted to do for years. That thing that always comes up in your thoughts. That thing that tugs at your heart. That thing you stand for. That thing you think “if only I could do ___”. That thing where you’re like “what if…”. It might work out and it might not. We take a risk when we try something new.. and we also take a risk WHEN WE DON’T! The risk when we don’t try? You might miss out on that thing. You might settle.

Be present. Check out the below excerpt right out of the book. How often do you go out to eat and see this all around you? A couple, both phones on the table. A group, each trying to document every detail of the afternoon via social media. Be present with the people you’re choosing to spend time with. If you don’t want to be present, don’t be there.

“You sit down to eat with a friend and she puts her phone on the table between the two of you with the screen facing up. Without saying anything verbally, she has just communicated to you that even though she is here, with you at the lunch, about to order food, if that phone rings and that screen lights up, she will be with you, but not be with you. Here but not here. In that moment as she glances down at the screen she will be making a decision about whether to answer or not.

This extraordinary technology that makes it possible for us to connect with someone on the other side of the world also disconnects us from the person on the other side of the table.

To live with rhythm requires that you be intentional about what you’re doing and when you’re doing it.

If you’re with a person, then be with him, be with her.

… If you’re having lunch and talking, then be there. Put your cell phone away.”